Bissonnet carries a long history

By Flori Meeks

Published
1:29 pm CDT, Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Local historian and author Marks Hinton says a section of Bissonnet Road once was called Poor Farm Road because it was near a home for the indigent. This drainage channel near the road is still called Poor Farm Ditch. less

Local historian and author Marks Hinton says a section of Bissonnet Road once was called Poor Farm Road because it was near a home for the indigent. This drainage channel near the road is still called Poor Farm ... more

Photo: R. Clayton McKee, Freelance

Photo: R. Clayton McKee, Freelance

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Local historian and author Marks Hinton says a section of Bissonnet Road once was called Poor Farm Road because it was near a home for the indigent. This drainage channel near the road is still called Poor Farm Ditch. less

Local historian and author Marks Hinton says a section of Bissonnet Road once was called Poor Farm Road because it was near a home for the indigent. This drainage channel near the road is still called Poor Farm ... more

Photo: R. Clayton McKee, Freelance

Bissonnet carries a long history

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Jim Padgett, 81, still remembers the barbershop he strolled by as a teen in the 1940s on Bissonnet Street near Rice Avenue.

"They offered special haircuts for bald men," said Padgett, who now lives in southwest Houston.

Bissonnet was a pretty well-used road in his community by that time. Most Bellaire residents used Bissonnet or Bellaire to drive to Houston.

But Bissonnet has been part of greater Houston's history for nearly a century.

When Marks Hinton researched the road for his book, "Historic Houston Streets: The Stories Behind Names" (Bright Sky Press, $19.95), he found the first mention of Bissonnet on a Houston map in 1915.

The road started at Montrose Boulevard, by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and extended west.

The road was named after George Herman Bissonnet, a Houston pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War I who died in a plane crash during training.

"During World War I, about 75 to 80 streets in Houston were named for young men who lost their lives in World War I," Hinton said. "They include Waugh Drive, named for Thomas Waugh, who was killed in France."

Though there was a Bissonnet Street as early as 1915, the road has had several other names over the years, Hinton said.

The poor farm provided housing for the needy between 1894 and 1937. It sat north of Bissonnet and South of Westpark, between Edloe and Childress streets.

"Today, it's one of the more upscale neighborhoods in the city," Hinton said.

Though the poor farm is gone, a reminder remains. The Harris County Flood Control District continues to maintain Poor Farm Ditch between the cities of Southside Place and West University Place.

The ditch, which runs parallel to Edloe, channels storm water into Brays Bayou.

Bissonnet also was once known as Richmond Road because it was the principal route from Houston to the city of Richmond in Fort Bend County. It was a different road from Richmond Avenue, another major Houston thoroughfare.

A section of what is now Bissonnet also appeared as West 11th Street on an early planning map for Southampton Place, Hinton said.

"No one has a clue why it was called West 11th Street," Hinton said.

Landmarks along Bissonnet over the years have included Westwood Mall, open from 1975 to 1998 at 9700 Bissonnet in the Alief area.